Eddie Bauer returns to Syracuse, this time with an outlet store at Destiny USA

View full sizeDavid Lassman / The Post-StandardA new, larger Apple store opened Saturday at Destiny USA, in the spot that used to occupy the old Eddie Bauer store and most of the former adjacent Eddie Bauer Home store. The new Eddie Bauer Outlet store opened Thursday in the expansion of Destiny USA.

View full sizeDavid Lassman / The Post-StandardA new, larger Apple store opened Saturday at Destiny USA, in the same second-level location once occupied by the old Eddie Bauer and most of the adjacent Eddie Bauer Home stores. A new Eddie Bauer Outlet store opened Thursday in the expansion of Destiny USA.

View full sizeDavid Lassman / The Post-StandardA new, larger Apple store opened Saturday at Destiny USA in the former second-level locations of the old Eddie Bauer and most of the Eddie Bauer Home stores. A new Eddie Bauer Outlet store opened Thursday in the expansion of Destiny USA.

Syracuse, NY -- Eddie Bauer is back in the ’Cuse. And for that, you can thank, in part, the district manager for Eddie Bauer in Upstate New York.

EB left Destiny USA years back in some sort of a dispute with the owner of the mall, then called Carousel Center. Interestingly, its former clothing store and adjacent Eddie Bauer Home store locations are now occupied by a massive new (and impressive new) Apple store that just opened Saturday.

And yes, this version of EB is different. It’s an Eddie Bauer Outlet that opened Thursday in the Destiny expansion.

On hand Tuesday getting the store ready was Susan Sacca, that Eddie Bauer district manager I was telling you about. She goes way back with the mall property.

Before joining the Eddie Bauer team, she worked with Victoria’s Secret and The Bombay Company stores at The Mall, back in the day.

After joining Eddie Bauer, Sacca said she was contacted by email from the home office (in Seattle) of the company where execs had heard about the Destiny project and wrote, “We don’t want to be here, do we?” Sacca’s response: “Yes we do.”

David Lassman / The Post-StandardA new, larger Apple store opened Thursday at Destiny USA, in the location of the formed Eddie Bauer and most of the adjacent Eddie Bauer stores. A new Eddie Bauer Outlet store opened Thursday in the expansion of Destiny USA.

Here’s why:

“I’d been hearing about Destiny for years and knew it was going to be fabulous,” said Sacca. “So we’re back, by popular demand. And I’ve staked my whole reputation on it.”

It’s not the EB you remember right before it left, pushing fashion over their once-signature outdoorsy function. Now, Eddie Bauer is back to its roots.

You’ll see much more of that outdoor-type of clothing and gear, backed by a lifetime, no-hassle-return warranty. It’s EB’s first outlet inside a mall, and a cool prototype.

“We’re all jazzed,” said Sacca. “We’d always hoped to return to Syracuse.”

Store manager Meghan Rafferty said the clothing and gear includes items made for the upscale Eddie Bauer outlets.

“It’s all direct buys, first quality, not seconds,” said Rafferty as she toured the store.

An edge to the retailer’s competition in the mall — read Eastern Mountain Sports for one — is the Eddie Bauer store includes clothing lines for tall men and more petite items for shorter women, said Rafferty.

But a big edge, the managers say, is that no-hassle return policy and the lifetime guarantee — even years after a product is purchased.

“It’s written down, and it’s first contact, meaning it doesn’t have to go to a manager in a back room for approval,” said Rafferty. “Every employee can just say, ‘Go pick out another similar item.’ We have that creed and that guarantee.”

Express checkout

It was some big event Friday in Skaneateles. The new LakeHouse Pub did a bare-bones cold opening, on the site of the former Morris’s Grill in the Seitz Building at 4 W. Genesee St. (Route 20). LakeHouse comes from Dennis Coleman, general manager of Coleman’s Authentic Irish Pub in Syracuse, and partners Joe Goethe and Mike Wamp. Morris’s, a beloved local landmark in the village, closed in 2009. And what a crowd it drew on opening night, we’re told. Customers from the well-heeled to the boot-heeled to the sneaker-heeled to the flip-flop-heeled were side-by-side enjoying the new joint.

One thing about that new Apple store: Even though it’s only a few doors down from where the mini store operated for years, some customers apparently aren’t finding it. At least according to one person who e-mailed Store Front:

“Bob: You wouldn’t believe how many people have walked up to the site of the old store, and asked people working nearby if the Apple store closed. It’s as if they only entered the mall from the Lord & Taylor end, and never got any farther than Swarovski, so they didn’t see the huge sign, never heard the rumors or never talked to anyone in the old store. One person I know said, ‘Yeah, they weren’t busy enough.’ Of course, Apple doesn’t help. They could at least put a ‘We’ve moved’ sign on the blank wall in front of the old space.”

Thanks. And “...weren’t busy enough.” That’s adorbs.

I spoke with Rob Schoeneck, the mall’s general manager, who said a “we’ve moved” sign should be up on the site of the old store by today.

Store Front run Fridays in CNY and Sundays in The Post-Standard Business section, and blog.syracuse.com/storefront is updated regularly. The Store Front e-newsletter is delivered Wednesday mornings to Friends of Store Front. Contact Bob Niedt at bniedt@syracuse.com. You can call Bob at 470-2264.